The Spain-based company, Acciona Energia, has just concluded the construction of its US$349 million solar energy plant in Puerto Libertad, Sonora, in a joint venture project with Tuto Energy. The facility, which is set to start operations in the first four months of 2019 and is the biggest the company has ever built, has over 1.07 million PV panels installed in Sonora’s desert.
The construction of the Puerto Libertad complex employed 600 people, but is set to employ 38 people when it’s fully operational. The plant itself comprises 1.22 million polycrystalline silicon panels with a solar radiation collection area of 2.4 square kilometers and will approximately generate 963 GWh of electricity a year, which is the amount of energy that would be able to meet the demand of 583,000 homes.
“To date, we had never reached such a pace of activity in the construction of a photovoltaic plant. In Puerto Libertad we have achieved very efficient working practices born of our experience in previous projects, and this has enabled us to complete the assembly of the plant in record time and also contribute to a major increase in our installed capacity in Mexico,” said Miguel Angel Alonso, CEO of Acciona Energia Mexico.